Below is a collage of the logos of national level institutes and universities of Odisha. (IIIT is trying to get there.) Note that except NIT Rourkela, which started as an REC in 1961 and became NIT in 2002, the rest have been established in the last 5 years:

The 12th plan working group report on Sports and Physical Education recommends the establishment of four regional centres of LNUPE and 5 new sports and physical education universities or physical education colleges. Odisha must vigorously pursue the central government and the planning commission to get one of the proposed 5 sports and physical education universities.

In this regard, please send an email to the Odisha CM at cmo@ori.nic.in with content such as given below:

Dear Esteemed CM:

The 12th plan working group on Sports and Physical Education has recommended in their report at http://planningcommission.nic.in/aboutus/committee/wrkgrp12/hrd/wg_repsports.pdf that "for meeting the increasing demand of Physical Education Teachers and producing quality PETs, at least four regional centres of LNUPE and 5 new sports and physical education universities or physical education colleges should be opened during 12th
Plan. "

Kindly pursue with the central government regarding having one of these universities in Odisha.

Sincerely,

Following are some rationale behind pursuing a Sports and Physical Education University. Please have a look at it at your leisure.

While promoting sports, besides providing good facilities (hostels, stadiums, turfs), what is most important is that the athletes are provided with opportunities to pursue some recognized degree/diploma/certificate of study so that they have alternate avenues of employment. For example, consider the story in http://www.indiablooms.com/SportsVideoDetails/sportsVideoDetails180312f.php.

Following is an excerpt from that story.

Renowned national woman footballer Jhilli Munda, who has represented India at international and national events in several tournaments, is bearing the brunt of acute poverty and she is forced to roll beedis to earn her bread and butter.

It is well known that among the athletes that join the sports hostels, only a few make it to the state and national teams and of them only a few get appropriate jobs. What happens to the rest? It is sad to read about Jhili Munda’s story above. The point is until and unless we make sure that kids pursuing a career as an athlete have a way to make a living we can not significantly improve the sports scenario in Odisha and India. Now how do we make sure that *all* kids pursuing a career as an athlete have a way to make a living.

The way to do that is to provide them with some *relevant education* in parallel with their athletics training such that even if they do not make it to the top in sports, they can get a good job and make a living. What are some of the relevant educational avenues and programs?

Some of them are:

Physical training

Coaching in various sports

Physiotherapy

Sports medicine

Exercise Physiology

Sports Psychology

Sports Biomechanics

Sports Management and Mass Communication

Health Sciences & Yoga

Sports Massage

Grounds Management

Health and fitness management

Sports journalism

Sports photography and

Sports commentary.

Some of these courses are offered at the three established institutions in India:

5.15 It has been recommended that for meeting the increasing demand of Physical Education Teachers and producing quality PETs, at least four regional centres of LNUPE and 5 new sports and physical education universities or physical education colleges should be opened during 12th Plan. An outlay of Rs. 900 crore on this account during 12th Plan is projected.

Thus we should vigorously pursue the establishment of a National Sports Institute/University in Odisha that not only offers training in the sports Odisha excels in (Hockey – mens and womens, Football, Rowing, etc.) but also offers the above mentioned programs so that every athlete of Odisha is able to simultaneously pursue a certificate/diploma/degree in one of the above disciplines and is able to make a decent living.

Considering that Sundergarh and Rourkela area is the hotbed of Odisha athletics (mainly Hockey) and it is a tribal district, it would be good to locate the proposed National Sports Institute/University in Sundergarh/Rourkela. It may have branches in Kendrapada and Bhubaneswar to cater to the women footballers of Kendrapada and other sports persons in Bhubaneswar/Cuttack. Moreover the university in Sundergarh/Rourkela can also cater to athletes in Jharkhand.

The recent election of Mr. Dilip Tirkey as a Rajya Sabha MP can be seen/argued as an indication that the Odisha government is serious about promoting sports in a wholesome way, with particular attention to adivasis.

The State Government in the Department of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday asked the district authorities of Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Sundargarh and Dhenkanal to start preliminary work for construction of four General Nursing and Midwifery Training Schools in those districts at a cost of Rs 10 crore each.

Out of the required Rs 40 crore, the Central Government has agreed to release 85 per cent and the State would have to bear 15 per cent. …

Besides, the Government has also directed the departmental authorities in Nabarangpur, Boudh and Subarnpur to accelerate the process of completing the GNM Training School and two ANM Training Schools under construction in the districts, respectively. The Centre has released Rs 4.75 crore out of a total of Rs 17 crore. The State Government has also released Rs 1 crore while another Rs 3. 33 crore has been laid out in the current year towards the State’s share.

The Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) plans to collaborate with the Pune-based Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to work on various key areas of high performance computing, the use of supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computing problems.

The university is working on setting up five advanced centres of computing in various institutions in the state and intends to set up a high performance computing cluster in their upcoming campus in Rourkela.

The first of the global schools to be set up in Bhopal is likely to be operational by the end of this year. “We are in talks with investors for setting up schools in Kolkata, Bengaluru and Rourkela,” Mr Kumar said. The school will have classes from kindergarten to XII.

According to Mr Kumar, the primary differentiating factor between FIITJEE’s World School and Global School would be in terms of the infrastructure and curriculum.

“The world school in Hyderabad is not a residential school and is based primarily on the State board syllabus. The global school, on the other hand, will have both day scholar and boarding facilities, the infrastructure will also be of higher standards and it will offer three curriculum options (CBSE, ICSE and State board) to students to choose from,” Mr Kumar said.

The average cost of setting up the infrastructure for the Global School would be close to Rs 150 crore, he said.

While for reason of pride it is important that BPUT buildings get completed soon in Rourkela and BPUT becomes fully operational from Rourkela asap, what is most important for Rourkela in terms of higher education is a general university with programs in all disciplines: arts, commerce, sciences, engineering, pharmacy, etc. etc.

Rourkela is one of the few metropolitan areas of the country with a population greater than 500,000 that does not have a general university. There are a few other outliers such as Asansol and Dhanbad. (Dhanbad has ISMU; but its not a general university.) I would say if one checks the cities with more than 500 K population anywhere in the world, most would have a general university. In US, most cities with a population greater than 200K have a general university. In Odisha itself, much smaller cities and towns (Berhampur, Sambalpur, Balasore, Baripada and Koraput) have general universities.

Last year the higher education taskforce, among many other items, recommended a general university in Rourkela. However, I am not sure if any action is being taken based on that report. Regardless, I think the resurgent residents of Rourkela need to put the establishment of a general university in Rourkela among the top of their demands. I would put it at number one. The first thing that a city needs to become a real city is a general university. If people have to go out of town to pursue masters degree in regular disciplines like Economics or Commerce then the city is severely lacking.

Bokaro Steel Ltd (BSL) has expedited the process of turning the 910-bed Bokaro General Hospital (BGH) into a state-of-the-art medical college.

Without setting a fixed deadline as of now, BSL a unit of SAIL wants to set up the college on public-private-partnership (PPP) basis. The state government is also providing its best possible support to BSL in setting up the college.

According to a senior BSL official, the company has initiated the process to enter into collaboration with private medical colleges for setting up the college. Talks between BSL management and premier medical colleges like Manipal Medical College, Karnataka, D Y Patil, Mumbai, Bhartiya Vidyapeeth, Pune, and Sri Ram Chandra Medical College, Chennai, are now in its final stages. A deal will soon be finalized with any one of the institutions, said the official.

The medical college for doctoral aspirants from the state is a dream project of BSL managing director S S Mohanty. However, BSL had earlier also initiated the process of setting up the medical college under the banner of Bokaro Ispat Education Trust but it was turned down for not fulfilling certain criteria as required by Medical Council of India.

However, BSL management has again formed a committee, which is working on preparing terms and conditions of the MoU that is to be signed with the institution. The committee members have already negotiated verbally with several medical institutions in this regard. The committee has received letters of interest from Manipal and D Y Patil Medical colleges while others have sent their assurance verbally.

Under the joint venture, the official said, BSL will provide its infrastructure (hospital) and other arrangements for bedside teaching facility to the institution, which will come up with its own building for classrooms, manpower and other essential facilities. BSL will provide the land on 99-year lease to the institution.

BGH has a huge potential to be developed as a medical college in this region. Around 11 lakh patients have undergone treatment in BGH in the last financial year alone.

Considering that IGH already is a 685 bed hospital it can easily accommodate a medical college. SAIL Rourkela and IGH need to learn from the efforts at SAIL Bokaro and pursue establishing a medical college.

Patnaik presided over a review of NTPC’s progress on two proposed two projects at Darlipali in Sundergarh district and Gajamara in Dhenkanal district.

… The NTPC has committed to set up a medical college hospital in Sundergarh district and upgrade the existing district headquarters hospital to 100 beds with ICU.

The location of Sundergarh is a judicious one, as Talcher (where NTPC has its current operations) area will have two medical colleges (one by MCL and another by JSPL) and Dhenkanal (the other location of NTPC’s two new UMPPs) is close to Cuttack-Bhubaneswar which have several medical colleges. In addition, it is time something is given back to Sundergarh, whose Ib valley is a major source of coal.

The Orissa High Court has directed the state government, union and the authorities of the ESIC to clarify their stand on the establishment of an ESIC Medical College at its existing hospital in Orissa.Acting on a writ petition, the HC bench comprising Chief Justice V Gopal Gowda and Justice B N Mohapatra has given two weeks time to the parties to submit their replies on the issue.The action committee of Rourkela had filed the writ petition in the High Court as the state government alloted the land.The action committee has been demanding establishment of the ESIC medical college here stating that out of 2.70 lakh Insured Persons (IPs) in the state 65 per cent were from tribal dominated districts of Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar and Sambalpur.

This should resolve the ESIC medical college location issue. So far the central government and the state government have never been able to give a proper answer to the logic behind choosing Bhubaneswar as the location, despite indications that more insured people will be served if it was located in Rourkela.

Kudos to the people who have persisted on this for more than 2 years. Their latest efforts are chronicled in http://www.rourkelacity.com. BPUT is next on their agenda. Rightly so, as very little progress has been made on BPUT front. I hope others interested in the development of Rourkela will join http://www.rourkelacity.com and actively help in the efforts being organized there.

This can also serve as a guide to people from other areas on how to organize themselves and help and watchout for the development of areas of their interest.

The 139 acres BPUT Rourkela campus is structured along a pedestrian spine, punctuated by a central court with administrative offices, a central library, and a student complex. Secondary courts occur at the entrance to the various faculty buildings.